Apparatus for the treatment of the limbs of the human body.



' E. T. BLOCH. APPARATUS FOR THE TREATMENT 0F THE LIMBS 0F THE HUMAINBODY.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5. I9I4.

Patented Apr. 20, 1915.

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E. T. BLOCH. APPARATUS FOR THE TREATMENT oF THE LHvls 0F THE HUMAN BODY.APPLICATION FILED MAY 5. I9I4.

1 ,136,397, Patented A111120, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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E. T. BLOCH. APPARATUS FOR THE TREATMENT 0F THE LINIBS 0F THE HUMANBODY.

APPLICATION FILED. MAY 5, |914.

1,136,397, Patented Apr. 20, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

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STATES FAIENII QFFIQE.

EMANUEL TREPKA BLOCH, OF LEJRE, DENMARK.

APPARATUSMFOR THE TREATMENT OF THE LIMBS OF THE HUMAN BODY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 2Q, 1915.

Application led May 5, 1914. Serial No. 836,498.

T0 all whom t may concern Be it known that I, EMANUEL TREPKA BLOCH, asubject of the King of Denmark, and residing at Lejre, Denmark, haveinvented a new and useful Apparatus for the Treatment of the Limbs ofthe Human Body; and I do hereby declare the follow.- ing to be a full,clear, and eXact Vdescription of the same.

This invention refers to an apparatus for thetreatment of surgical cases(fractures, dislocations, contractions, etc.)

`The apparatus is composed of several different members, depending uponthe nature of the case and the object of the treatment, and, by means ofthe various thus combined members, it is possible, by exercisingconditional power in conditional directions, to immobilize or mobilize alimb of the human body.

The members of the apparatus consist of supports, the surfaces of whichare surfaces of a ball, said supports articulating with main members, bymeans of which splints, or rods, may be held immovable for bandaging(for instance with plaster-bandages,) in which are disposed metal plateswhich can also be fastened immovably tothe buttons. By a slightalteration, these supports may be easily transformed into ball-joints.The distance between two such supports fastened to one splint may bealtered by shifting the supports, or also by ,combining several splintsinto one by means of splint-clamps. On the splints there may furthermorebe clamped fast other clamps for the purpose of clamping fast metalstrips, which serve as pad-holders. Splint-clamps are also used forsecuring spring-members of variable strength and disposed so as tospring in variable planes, which springs can be disposed betweencombined splints or in prolongation of a splint and for securing hingesand joints. All these members, together with screws, bolts, and nuts,etc., may be so combined that by their means multifarious orthopedicbandages may be constructed, both for adults and children, andespecially for use in affections of the extremities, but also inaffections of the trunk.

The accompanying drawings set forth forms of construction of the mostimportant members of the apparatus, as well asa few uses of the same.

Figure l is a longitudinal section of a splint (along the line I-I inFig. 3) with two supports and a few clamps, Fig. 2 is a side view of thesame, Fig. 3 is a top view of the same, Fig. 4 shows au set of springswith appertaining connecting parts, being a section along the line IV-IVin Fig. 5, Fig. 5 is a top view of the same, Fig. 6 is a section of asupport transformed into a ball-joint, Fig. 7 is a top view of a hingejoint, Fig. 8 is a top view of a hook, Fig. 9 shows the apparatuscombined for the immobilization of an arm, Figs. l0 and 1l show othercombinations of the apparatus for mobilization of an arm and a leg,respectively.

The support is situated at a. At its top it has a spherical surface b,both inside and outside, only interrupted by a hole c. 0n the outsidespherical surface slides the main piece al, which is secured to thesupport'by means of a screw e with nut f. The lower end of the screw eis furnished with ahead g, the surface of which is spherical, and isthus able to slide on the interior spherical surface of the support.This screw-head is so large that, when the nut is tightened, it will beclamped fast against the interior concave surface of the support, novmatter what angle the screw may have in relation to the support. In themain piece Z there is disposed a little flat spring it which is presseddown by means of the little nut'z'. In its extreme position, the side ofthe screw rests against the edge of the hole, without the edge of thescrew-head passing the edge of the hole, so that the screw-head g in allpositions covers the hole c. The flat spring is given a sufficienttension, by means of its little nut z', to prevent the main piece fromfalling to one side by its own weight when the splints are not securedin position, but not sufficient to Vprevent said main piece from movingon the convex surface of the button with soft friction, thus making itconvenient to adjust the splints on the main piece before securing themto the support. The splints j are laid down in the bearings formed inthe front part of the main piece. Then the nut f is put on and drawntight, thereby securing the splint unmovably to the support.

The foot-piece 7c of the support has in its center a screw-hole intowhich the screw Z on the foot-plate 'm can be screwed up. Between thefoot-piece 7c and the foot-plate m there is laid a metal plate n. Whenthe screw Z is screwed entirely up, the plate n is secured unmovably,the turning of the plate being prevented by a pair of pins o onV thefoot-plate lm, passing up through corre-V sponding holes in the plate n.In the footpiece 7c there are a pair of holes p (Fig. 2), in which thepins of a top-key can mesh, said key being used to tighten the screw Z.The plate n is supplied with upwardly and downwardly extending barbs rby the help of which the plate is held fast to a bandage (for instance,a plaster-bandage).

In Figs. 1-3 the splints are shown consisting of four single splints j,which are in pairs secured each pair to a support a. The two doublesplints are united to form a single double splint by means of asplintclamp. The splint-clamp consists of a footp'late s, with bearingfor the splints, and two screws t which are passed up between thesplints y'. On tightening the nuts u, the splints are securely united,so that they all act 'as one splint. In order to secure a human limb,for instance an arm (Fig. 9) it is customary to use two double splints jdisposed opposite to each other, each secured to two supports a at theends of the double splints, the two metal plates fn., unmovably unitedto the supports a, being secured in bandages o (for instance plasterbandages) adapted to the shape of the limb. On Figs. 1-3 there is shown,beside the splint-clamp, another clamp, a pad-holder, by means of whichmay be clamped fast a strip of plate, which, in its turn, holds fast apad. The pad-holder'consists of a `strap-shaped plate w furnished with ascrew-hole. In the plate w may be inserted a strip of plate :c (Fig. 3),which may be secured to the splint y' by means of the metal intermediateplate y and the screw z. The splint should be able to be bent and wound,therefore the width of the strap is so small that the distance of thesplints does not need to be constant. The cross section of each straphas the shape of an elongated rectangle, rendering the splint veryflexible.

The use of the pad-holder is shown in Fig. l0. The strips of plate arefastened to the lower side of the splints y' by means of the pad-holdersfw. These strips of plate are carried farther to the correspondingpad-holders on splints disposed just opposite those shown on thedrawing. Thus the arm may be surrounded transversely with a half orwhole strip of plate running around it and stationary in relation to thearm. To these transverse strips of plate w one or more longitudinalstrips of plate Z may be secured. In this manner the pad 2 is held fast.Since these strips of plate with pads may be disposed anywhere onsplints of variable length, it is thereby possible to exercise a greattransverse force on the limb, depending upon the shape and size of thepad.

Force in directions approaching the longitudinal (both pulling andpressure) may be exercised on the limb (for instance an arm, Fig. 9) bylongitudinally movingthe' y sible to accomplish a traction (for instanceY in case of a broken-bone) or a pressure-effect in another manner byloosening all four nuts (Fig. 9) and then grasping the two plasterringso and moving them farther away from each other, thus exercising atraction on the limb secured between them, after which thetwoplaster-rings are secured in relation to each other by tighteningthe-four nuts, all on condition that the plaster-rings meet resistanceagainst shifting position in relation to the limb.

Since the distal bandage-ring can not only be shifted in a longitudinaldirection in relation to the proximal bandage-ring, but can also beshifted laterally (by means of an angular movement of the main-pieces oneoV the four supports, Fig. 9, and by means of the bending of thesplints or ofturning the splints around a conditional axis by means oftwo handles specially constructed for that purpose for accomplishinggreater' lateral modifications), a limb lying in said distalbandage-ring may, in this manner, also be affected by lateral force,after the four nuts are again tightened, thereby securingY the splintsin position. Thus we see that, by means of this apparatus, we are ableyto immobilize a limb by the exercising of conditional force inconditional directions in every desirable place. In order to satisfy thesame demands during the movement of the joints, we must use, in additionto the aforesaid parts, also ball-joints, hinges, springs, and hooks.

The support may be transformed into a ball-joint (Fig. 6) by removingthe nut i and substituting it by a turn-plate 3 with collar 4cperforated by a screw-threaded hole corresponding tothe screw e. Thesplints are then clamped' in between the turn-plate" 3 and the nut 7:,thereby forming a ball-joint,

the articulating surfaces of which move with a slight friction againsteach other, owing to the pressure which the turn-plate exercises uponthe spring It, which transfers it on t0 the main-piece cl. Thus thelatter can be turned, with a slight friction, around the upper sphericalsurface ofthe support, while both splint and support are held unmovablysecured, unless such a turning were prevented by the Vup-standing edgesof the mainpiece lying on the lateral surfaces of the splints. Thehinge-joint (Fig. 7 consists of two parts 5 and 6 connected with thejoint, each of which ends in two splint-sections 7 corresponding to thesplints j, whereby they can be united to splints by means ofsplint-clamps. The piece 5 bears a screw 8 which passes up through asemi-circular guide-slit 9 in the piece 6. By tightening the screw 8,the two hinge-members 5 and 6 can be secured in relation to eachother.In the slit 9 may be shifted and screwed fast a screw 10, which servesto limit the movement of the hinge.

The spring is compound (Figs. 4 and 5) and consists of several thin,flat springs 11, which are perforated at the ends. They are laid in thedesired numbers, the one on top of the other, and are secured to twoholderpieces 12 by means of screws 13 with nuts 14C and counter-nuts 15.The holder-pieces 12 are screwed into pieces 16 which, like thehinge-joints, are furnished with splint-sections 7 by means of which'they can be united to the splints, hinge-joints, etc. The thickness ofthe spring, and consequently its strength, may be varied within widelimits, and its spring-plane may be varied independently of the angularposition of the pieces 16, since the pieces 12 can be turned in thepieces 16, a turning which the spring, when once inserted in a doublesplint, will accomplish of its own accord v when the spring is broughtto a tension.

The object of the hinge-joints 5, 6, will be readily seen in Figs. 10and 11. In the latter figure there is inserted a spring 11 which takesthe place of a double splint or transforms it in a part to a spring ofsuitable strength and of suitable spring-plane, thereby insuring theconstant maintenance of a weak spring-pressure, notwithstanding themovement in the knee-joint. Thus during this movement a pressure isconstantly eX- ercised at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of thelower leg (see the arrow 17`).

The hook (Fig. 8) consists of a piece of plate 18 with a hook 19. Thepiece of plate 18 can, the same as the strips of plate a2, be clampedfast to a double splint by means of a pad holder w.

In Figs. 10 and 11 there are shown some combinations of the alreadydescribed parts for immobilization and the later on described parts formobilization of the limbs. In Fig. 10 there is disposed, between the twohooks 19, an elastic band (an artificial muscle). All the other partsshown in these two figures have already been described, and do not needany further description.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent:

1. In a surgical apparatus, the combination of a splint comprising apair of spaced members; a bearing member adapted to engage between saidmembers and provided with a socket having an inner spherical surface; asupport provided with a partially spherical portion adapted to engagethe surface of the socket; a screw passing through said splint bearingmember and portion and provided with a. head engaging in said sphericalportion; a nut on said screw; and a flat spring interposed between saidbearing and the splint members for modifying the friction between thecontacting surfaces of said head, spherical portion and bearing members.

2. In a surgical apparatus, the combination of a splint comprising apair of spaced members; a bearing member adapted to engage between saidmembers and provided with a socket having an inner spherical surface; asupport provided with a partially spherical portion adapted to; engagethe surface of the socket; a screw passing through said splint bearingmember and portion and provided with a head engaging in said sphericalportion; a nut on said screw; a flat disk interposed between saidbearing and the splint members andhaving threaded engagement with saidscrew; and a flat spring interposed between the bearing member and disk.

3. In a surgical apparatus, the combination of, a splint comprisingspaced members; and a pad holder comprising a strap plate havingupturned ends engaging between said members; a strap adapted to passbetween said ends and between the plate and said members, anintermediate plate adapted to rest on said members, and a wing screwpassing through the intermediate plate into the intermediateplate andinto the strap plate. Y

4. In a surgical apparatus, a pair of spaced members each having anouter flat face; a strap plate contacting the inner face of said membersand having a projection engaging therebetween; a strap engaged and heldthereby; an intermediate plate having both its breadth and thicknesseach less than the width of the space between said members, and havingan inner fiat face adapted to engage the flat faces of said members; anda screw passing through the intermediate plate into the strap plate.

5. In a surgical apparatus, the combination of a splint, a bearingmember adjustably secured thereon; a support having universal connectionwith the bearing member and having a foot piece having a screw hole; afoot plate having thereon a screw engaging in said screw hole; and ametal plate interposed between the foot plate and foot piece, andadapted to have a bandage secured thereto.

6. In a surgical apparatus, a pair of spaced members; means for holdingsaid members in xed spaced relation at certain each less than the Widthof theV space be- 10 points; a strap plate engaging the inner tween themembers.

faces of said members; a strap engaged and In testimony whereof I aiiiXmy signature held thereby; an intermediate plate having in presence oftwo Witnesses.

its principal plane in parallel relation to EMANUEL TREPKA BLOCH theprincipal plane of the strap plate; and

ascrew passing through the intermediate Witnesses:

plate into the strap plate; the intermediate VIGGO BLOM, v plate havingboth its breadth and thickness FRITZ FREDERIKSEN. Y

C'opes of this patent may be obtained 4for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

